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Funnily enough, the side of the brain we use to see things in our head is also the shittiest at drawing.
If you're interested in improving your skill I can't recommend Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain enough.
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: The Definitive, 4th Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1585429201/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_605eDbH573H1C
Edit: I know the left vs right brain thing is fake, what I meant is being able to visualize something in your head doesn't correlate to drawing skills until you train your brain to do it
I personally think the opposite. Photo realism is not "advanced". Painting impressionistically is not beginner either. What you need for impressionist painting comes off the back of photorealism. Copying a photo does not make you advanced. Infusing a photo with emotion and meaning makes you advanced. This painting is just that. And I love it. I am honestly tired seeing a photorealistic drawing and then clicking the comments just to see "Wow! I thought it was a photo" over and over again. Not to knock it, but this sort of work takes a different kind of skill. You need a handle (hah) on your brushwork and how you react to what you see. Difficult as fuck. Im still learning how to do this myself.
Learning "how to see" is definitely the cornerstone in becoming a better artist, though. That I agree with. Don't equate impressionism with not being able to do this. In my opinion they do it the best. I recommend anyone learning to pick up "drawing on the right side of the brain". Thats what personally helped me with getting things right. I used to draw photorealistic but I felt that it was an empty sort of exercise. Where do you go from there? Here. You go here. You express yourself.
Love the painting
It does, but you don't need to know all of that to draw from a still photo of a face. Instead of drawing a skull, muscles, skin, you break the picture down into shapes and lines and draw those instead. You don't need to know any of the anatomy because all the visual information you need to draw it is already there without any knowledge of how it works.
It's possible to go from not knowing how to draw to being able to draw a pretty good face in just a week if you can learn to do this, there are several books that teach it. This is the one most people will recommend you. From there you just practice getting more accurate and learn how to actually do it (physical techniques to shade, how to blend, etc.).
He's being a dick about it but what /u/curdledS8 is saying is 100% accurate -- knowing how to draw from a still photo really well doesn't mean shit if you don't know how to draw form, how perspective works, etc.. It's not that impressive if you think about it this way.
...and your point is?
Almost all illustrators, and artist use reference material. Hell, there are books published that comprised entirely posed photographic reference for artists. And these have been in print for years.
The best resource I have found for learning how to draw/ progress in your skills is the book "drawing on the right side of the brain" here is an amazon link to the BOOK
But it's very easy to find this book online for free as well.
Other resources were weren't actually drawing books, but more of anatomy books. They are really helpful to teach you proportions, and shows you how the body is built up from bones to muscles, to skin etc...
I would avoid those "how to draw ___" books. They only teach you how to draw that one specific thing and its hard to transition that into drawing your own thing. The book I linked above does a good job of teaching you how to "see" what your drawing. So when you are drawing an eye, or an ear, it teaches you how to break down the subject into shapes and lines. A couple angled lines and squiggles are a lot easier to understand and draw than a full image of an eye/ ear.
I read somewhere that the reason that most adults draw like eleven-year-olds is that we are very self-critical during that age, and just stop drawing. Which means no practice and therefore no skill improvement.
If you really want to learn, there's a book which claims that anyone can learn to draw at least decently using their method.
(Sorry for imposing if you're not actually interested in drawing, I just thought I should mention it)
If you're serious about learning and this isn't a shitpost I would suggest reading through
https://www.amazon.com.au/Drawing-Head-Hands-Andrew-Loomis/dp/0857680978
and
https://www.amazon.com/Figure-Drawing-Invention-Michael-Hampton/dp/0615272819
You could probably find them online if you can't afford to buy them. Working through those books and practicing what they teach will help you see massive improvements. As much as people will say to just keep practicing, it's important that you practice correctly lest you get into bad habits.
It's a lot more about skill than it is about talent. Practice practice practice.
The old book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain has extremely useful exercises that will help you learn to do the most important thing when learning to draw : draw what you see, not what you think you see.
For example, if you look closely at an eye there aren't many sharp lines, it's bumpy and folded and there's crazy texture to the irises. But when you draw what you think instead of what you see you get a very hieroglyphic looking almond shape with a colored circle inside it, and a black dot in the middle of that.
Anyway, that book can teach even beginners how to break away from that and net huge progress. But you have to practice, that's the part where it all falls down for most people.
You can do it. You can absolutely do it!
Check this book out. You will be able to draw really well before you are half way through the book.
Hey bud,
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First and foremost I think you should start seeing a therapist, if you haven't already. Reddit and internet strangers are nice, but they are no substitute for a trained mental health professional.
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If you're anything like me, you're feeling totally overwhelmed and anxious about the idea of trying to 'get your life in order'. Its a totally normal feeling, as far as I'm concerned. Its a journey, and a battle, and it takes time. It wont happen over night. You have to chip at it consistently. Dont burn yourself out, but work at it as consistently as possible. But its worth it!!!
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Heres some resources that I think you would like and could be helpful:
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Good luck and god speed!
This. A thousand times this.
I highly recommend Figure Drawing For All It's Worth, by Andrew Loomis.
This will teach you everything from dynamic figure drawing to perspective. This was essential to every comic book artist of my generation and before. Not so much for the artists (and I use that term loosely) today, and it shows.
Measuring! When I was first learning how to draw the figure I measured it constantly. After you do it enough you'll eventually get a feel for it and you'll measure less and less until you don't have to anymore.
I suggest looking at a book like Andrew Loomis' Figure Drawing. He shows you how to measure, even in more difficult poses.
For a simple explanation, the standard figure is about 8 heads high. Obviously, people can vary in height so I would look at pictures of people at different heights and measure how many heads high they are.
If the pose is curving, be sure to measure following the curve.
For arms, the distance from your shoulder to your elbow is the same as the elbow to the wrist, and the wrist (when at your side) lines up with the bottom of the pelvis.
Your legs are similar. The hip to the knee is the same as the knee to the ankle.
This might help with a visual breakdown lol but I hope that gets you started :D
For me perspective did not come naturally, and it took several classes for me to really begin to understand it. In my opinion, it's a really simple concept, but the process of learning it is really hard. In the end, I basically learned it by making a lot of drawings with bad perspective. I would also recommend this book, as I found it to be a very simple to understand, yet comprehensive introduction to perspective. Choosing a perspective is a completely different topic, and requires the study of composition. This book is a great guide on composition, but you can also learn by studying films you find inspiring.
She sort of taught herself. I'm an artist, too, and sort of showed her a few things. But I think she mostly uses YouTube (I think just searches for "how to draw..." and puts in what she wants to draw) and also tries to imitate other styles she sees from games or anime. Then she incorporates that into her own style.
A great starter book that I found useful when I got back into drawing was You Can Draw in 30 Days. I meant to go through it together with my daughter but she sort of just took the first lesson and went off in her own path, so idk. I hope that's useful!
I read it many years ago, but it helped me to see differently, and so to draw better. It helps retrain your eyes to draw what you see, and to think about the spaces between things.
Now there are various versions of it. If you feel like checking it out, here it is.
Sorry, that probably did come across as more rude than helpful. I don't mean to discourage, more that you're just inexperienced. Google is your friend and just searching art fundamentals and picking a topic that's interesting or appealing to you probably will get you far at this point. At this point I'd experiment and try a bunch of different stuff rather than obsess over something specific. Here are a few topics that would be worth searching out:
Perspective (thinking about creating the illusion of a 3D object in a 2D space)
Value (understanding how to use light and dark to form objects and not just draw symbols)
Color theory (What are pleasing color palettes? More advanced: how does light affect color?)
Ask if you have more specific questions and you are 100% welcome to send me PMs if you want more detailed feedback and help, but this isn't really the place to ask for an art curriculum when you can find great resources on Amazon
EDIT: I'm a little worried that you're conceptualizing "ART" in the wrong way, from reading your reply. It's not like fundamentals are something you either have or you don't have, it's about growth and learning. But there's a foundation level that needs to be built first.
Just sketching whatever you feel like. Household objects, stuff like that. Then head drawing( This book is wonderful to start with) and/or gesture drawing. You could also look up some tutorials on drawing landscapes and do that, if you want to.
Learning gets more complicated once you become a little experienced and decide to study it more seriously, but you don't need to worry about that for now.
You have an eye for detail! Study anatomy, it will really breathe life into your work. I recommend Andrew Loomis' book on figure drawing. You can also get an ebook of it on Google Play for dirt cheap.
There's a Loomis method for the whole body. His models have easily memorable proportions and are built up over layers so you can see how he gets from each step in his thought process.
Best book on ink drawing I can think of. it will let you develop your ability then you can develop a style.
Short answer no. The community self regulates and i am hesitant to touch it.
Longer:
Oh that url is long. The lessons are lifted from this and drawabox and modified. The lesson that requires you to keep your hand on the page, not lifting or stopping movement, while drawing your offhand is mandatory. That lesson alone helps a ton!
> I am, as the title declares, a programmer.
Drop this mindset. You're boxing yourself in. You can learn whatever you set your mind to. Art and drawing are learned skills like any other.
You Can Draw In 30 Days is an excellent book that breaks down drawing into a sequence of steps. From there you can branch out into figure drawing, background drawing, color theory, etc...
I suggest stating with those learnt o draw tutorials to understand humans faces
this book is incredible at vreating the basics. This also just takes time
That's definitely pen & ink, if you want to learn how, this is one of the classic books, also check out Alphonso Dunn and Frank Lohan's books.
Yo straight-up, I used to draw like this!
You might not be seeking advice, but I found that this book, Drawing with the Right Side of the Brain, along with taking a few figure drawing classes, helped me develop a "system" so that I could actually draw things so not everything feels like it's all floating around.
Like, good thing is, a lotta people can pick-up on who you're trying to capture. And it's cool to be able to laugh at yourself and share it with us lol.
But that book (and the figure drawing classes) basically teaches you how to see through an imaginary grid, so things are in relation to each other, and in proportion to one another.
Drawing's dope as a subject, though. It's so crazy how when you're drawing someone from life, a line placed a millimeter or two off can really change how someone is depicted.
Either way, thanks for sharing, whether or not you keep pursuing art. I personally think you should, but I'm just a fellow Wire fan.
I went from mediocre at sketching to phenomenal (relative to before) and it doesn't take any special, inate artistic skill.
Get the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and work through the exercises. It focuses on portraits but the skills you learn will translate to vastly improved technical sketches.
Drawing/sketching is not an inate skill. It is just like reading. If you learn basic building blocks and practice, you'll achieve proficiency.
If you need help with the technical aspect of creating views, sections, etc, get this book: Freehand Sketching for CAD and Engineering Graphics
If you're interested in improving there is a book that I always recommend to artists: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a practical and fantastic resource to get you to have an artist's eye. It's helped me improve for sure!
Yes, you can learn to draw, if not professionally, at least very well.
If you want to learn, get THIS BOOK.
Read it. Draw every day for three years.
You will learn to draw very well.
If you do that and can't draw well after three years, I'll buy the book from you for twice the cost.
Study the 8 head Loomis proportions for ideal anatomy, study Proko construction models for building individual pieces of anatomy, and study a method for building gestures so you can draw people fluidly in dynamic poses. Loomis' mannequin process from Figure Drawing For All It's Worth is an okay way to learn the mannequin, but I personally find Samantha Youssef to have a far better approach with her gesture process.
You then want to draw from life, either from pictures, paused videos, or models in real life. The point of learning a gesture process is to be able to put down drawings that capture lots of information from quickly looking at a person. You should be able to capture the foundation of a person and a pose within 30 seconds of line work and major body masses. It'll look like a glorified stick figure but it'll have so much information for who you're looking at that it provides the foundation for building each form of anatomy.
If you learn a gesture system that let's you put down dynamic pose information within seconds to minutes, then you can go to a public place and observe people moving around to draw them. You can also find local art colleges / art studios that host public drawing classes where they bring in models for you to draw and study while they hold a pose for a long time.
The point is, learn how to build the body parts individually, learn how to set up a loose, quick gesture wire frame that let's you get your whole mannequin down as fast as possible, and then sculpt that mannequin to fit your model with as much detail as you want.
It gives basic structure and is less "dry" than some of the academic anatomy books. (I love my anatomy books, don't mistake—I think my favorite was this one: https://smile.amazon.com/Atlas-Anatomy-Artist-Stephen-Rogers/dp/0195030958/ )
Loomis was a game-changer for me, though. It's been considered a classic for so long for a reason. There are a lot of newer anatomy books and I don't have them all, and I'm sure many of them are excellent. I think Loomis is a welcome addition to any artists' library and for me, was essential.